Welcome to Reading Town Canada!

On the first week of May every year, the National Reading Campaign partners with a city to create an exemplary model of what a reading Canada looks like. In previous years, citizens of Moose Jaw, Charlottetown, and Calgary wove reading into every aspect of their lives over one week through a series of amazing events! This year, our biggest Reading Town ever will be coming to Sudbury, Ontario.

Featured Authors

David Yee is a playwright and actor, born and raised in Toronto. He is currently a playwright-in-residence with Tarragon Theatre and the Artistic Director of fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company. His most recent plays include paper SERIES and lady in the red dress, as well as contributions to the writing teams behind Artistic Fraud’s Fear of Flight and The Room’s Red Machine. He won the 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for his play carried away on the crest of a wave.

carried away on the crest of a waveAuthor : David YeePublisher : Playwright Canada

Cary Fagan is an award-winning author for children. His kids’ books include the popular Kaspar Snit novels, the two-volume Master Melville’s Medicine Show, and the picture book Mr. Zinger’s Hat, winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and the IODE Jean Throop Award. He has also won the Vicki Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature, Jewish Book Award and been shortlisted for the Silver Birch Award (five times), the Rocky Mountain Book Award (twice), the Hackmatack Award (twice), the Norma Fleck Award, the Shining Willow Award, and others. His work has been translated into nine languages.

Cary is also the author of six novels and three story collections for adults. His books include A Bird’s Eye (finalist for the Rogers Trust Fiction Prize, an Amazon.ca Best Book of the Year) and the story collection My Life Among the Apes (longlisted for the Giller Prize, Amazon.ca Best 100 Books of 2013).

Roch Carrier is a poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, essayist and National Librarian of Canada. His novel La Guerre, Yes Sir! (1968) cemented his reputation in Quebec and abroad. His extraordinary talent as a storyteller was confirmed with Floralie, Where Are You? (1969) and Is It the Sun, Philibert? (1970). This trilogy emerged as a search for the meaning of life and death, an omnipresent quest in all of Roch Carrier’s work.

Roch Carrier also published a considerable number of children’s books, as well as pieces written from a child’s point of view. His most famous work is The Hockey Sweater, which was read by millions of people. The story also received equally great success when the National Film Board turned it into a short film called The Sweater.

Alongside with his literary output, Roch Carrier has also led a brilliant career as a defender of the arts. From 1994 to 1997, he was the Director of the Canada Council for the Arts. In 1997, he was named National Librarian of Canada.

Caroline Allard is a writer, screenwriter, columnist and television host. She is the author of the famous series Les chroniques d’une mère indigne, which was adapted into a web series on the radio-canada.ca website and the comic book Les chroniques d’une fille indigne. She recently wrote the children’s book La Reine Et-que-ça-saute (Fonfon) and L’abécédaire du plaisir solitaire with Louis Émond. She is responsible for the Érotissimo spot on the show Plus on est de fous plus on lit, and she co-hosted the TV show Le sexe selon les sexes with Rémi-Pierre Paquin.

She wrote screenplays for many web series and has taught sketch comedy screenwriting at the École nationale de l’humour since 2013.

Scott Chantler is the acclaimed creator of the graphic novel TWO GENERALS, which was nominated for two Eisner Awards, named one of Chapters-Indigo’s Best Books of 2010, selected for BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2012, and named by the CBC as one of the 40 best Canadian non-fiction books of all time.

His other work includes NORTHWEST PASSAGE (nominated for Eisner and Harvey Awards) and the THREE THIEVES series (winner of the Joe Shuster Award for Best Comic for Kids and listed by YALSA as a Great Graphic Novel for Teens).

Two GeneralsAuthor: Scott ChantlerPublisher: McClelland & Stewart

Three ThievesAuthor: Scott ChantlerPublisher: Kids Can Press

Local Authors

Scott Overton has been a broadcaster for more than thirty years. His novel Dead Air is a mystery/thriller set in Sudbury about the world of radio. Dead Air was shortlisted for a Northern Lit Award in Ontario in 2012. But most of his writing is science fiction and fantasy. His short fiction has been published in the magazines On Spec, Neo-opsis, AE, Penumbra and several Canadian and American anthologies including Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound. His distractions from writing include some delightful grandchildren, scuba diving and a couple of collector cars. Read some of Scott’s short stories and his blog at www.scottoverton.ca.

Daniel Aubin is Greater Sudbury’s second-ever Poet Laureate. He writes and performs poetry in both English and French, often switching back and forth between the two. His books of poems, Plasticité (2004) and Néologirouettes (2012), are published by Sudbury’s own Éditions Prise de parole. Having studied theatre at Laurentian University, it’s no surprise that Daniel enjoys reading his poems aloud and thusly crafts them with an ear for the musicality of the strung along words. He writes an original poem every week for Le Voyageur newspaper in a column he’s titled Primordialogues. As an actor, he most recently appeared as Abraham in Encore Theatre’s 2015 production of Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Theatre.

Thomas Leduc lives and works in Sudbury and has been writing for several years. He was Poet Laureate of Sudbury from 2014-16, and is a member of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild. His stories have been published by Latitude 46 and Commuter Lit and his poetry in numerus magazines and anthologies.

Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario, teaching English at Marymount Academy. She has published three books of poetry, You Must Imagine The Cold Here, Braille on Water, and The Narcoleptic Madonna. In the late 1990’s, she worked with Timothy Findley as her mentor via the Humber School for Writers program. In Spring 2013, she took part in The Battle of the Bards at Toronto’s Harbourfront. In July 2014, she attended The Sage Hill Writing Experience in Lumsden, Saskatchewan, working with Ken Babstock as her mentor. She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers Union of Canada, and PEN Canada. Kim is currently finishing her fourth book of poetry, working on her first novel, and has just finished her first play, which will be performed at the Sudbury Theatre Centre in the coming season. You can read her non-fiction blog posts on “The Republic of Poetry” at kimfahner.wordpress.com. In 2016, she was appointed the Poet Laureate of The City of Greater Sudbury.

Matthew Heiti holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick. His writing has appeared in many of his favourite journals and his first novel, The City Still Breathing, is published by Coach House Books. He was named one of CBC’s “Writers to Watch” in 2014. His plays have been workshopped and produced at theatres and festivals across Canada. He is a Genie-nominated screenwriter and his play for teens, Black Dog: 4 vs. The World, will be published by Playwright Canada Press in 2016. In his spare time, he is usually working. Some of his writing can be found at harkback.org.

Liisa Kovala is a Finnish-Canadian teacher and writer living in Sudbury, Ontario with her husband and two children. She is a member of the Canadian Authors Association and the Sudbury Writers’ Guild. Liisa has published fiction and non-fiction pieces in Along the 46th, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas in Canada, CommuterLit.com, Canadian Stories and Canadian Teacher Magazine. The Day Soon Dawns (2015) recounts her father’s experiences as Finnish merchant marine imprisoned by the Nazis in Stutthof Concentration Camp. Liisa’s fiction explores the northern landscape and her Finnish heritage. Visit www.liisakovala.com.

Roger Nash is a past-President of the League of Canadian Poets, and inaugural Poet Laureate of Sudbury. As President of the League, he worked with Senator Grafstein to create the Parliamentary Canadian Poet Laureate position in Ottawa. He has eighteen books of poetry, short fiction and philosophy. His latest book, to be published this fall by Black Moss Press, is Zigzags, a collection of poetry. His literary awards include: the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Poetry, the PEN O.Henry Prize Story Award, the Confederation Poets Award (twice), and first prizes in poetry contests with Prism international and The Fiddlehead.

Kari Fisher is an author, poet, dog groomer, and Human Resources Generalist who has made Northern Ontario her home. She is a fan of many different types of literature and music, and spends her days shaving dogs or writing while sipping coffee, which she is hopelessly addicted to. She holds a blue belt in Taekwondo and has run a marathon. Kari loves food, and so does her cat, NyQuil. Kari is clumsy, disorganized, and never wears matching socks. Where does she get her motivation? Over-caffeination often helps, as little gets accomplished without a cup of java. Clearly, she loves Oxford Commas. Kari often encourages her readers to enjoy her characters as she creates them in her head—with a splash of red wine.

Mick Lowe was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and immigrated to Canada in 1970. Lowe’s journalism has appeared in a range of publications such as Maclean’s, Canadian Business, Canadian Lawyer, the Globe and Mail and on CBC Radio. His first non-fiction book, Conspiracy of Brothers, was a national bestseller and winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction Crime Book.In 2008, he suffered a stroke that interrupted his writing life, among other things. In early 2012, he restarted his writing career with this twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of Conspiracy of Brothers. He lives in Sudbury, where he is at work on a trilogy of novels set in the region in the early 1960s. The Raids, the first book in the series, launched in May 2014. The Insatiable Maw, Vol. 2 of the Nickel Range Trilogy is set to launch on May 24, 2015 in Sudbury.

Rosanna Micelotta Battigelli has received four provincial Best Practice Teaching Awards for her literacy strategies and other initiatives. Her fiction has appeared in Canadian anthologies, including Along the 46th by Sudbury’s Latitude 46 Publishing. Her novel La Brigantessa, presently under consideration, was awarded an OAC Writer’s Work in Progress Grant. She has completed mentorship programs at the Humber School for Writers, and in July 2015, she participated in Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s week-long Writer’s Camp in Providence Bay, Manitoulin Island.

Mitchell Gauvin is a Toronto-born, Sudbury-raised writer and editor who has also spent time in Dublin and Montreal. He has had short stories and poetry appear in a variety of publications and has upcoming work in Broken Pencil, Feathertale Review, Voracious Quarterly, and SAND. His debut novel, Vandal Confession, was released in fall 2015. He was an invited artist at the 2015 PlaySmelter Festival in Sudbury and is the editor of the short story anthology of Northern Ontario literature, Along the 46th, published by Latitude 46 Publishing.

Darlene Naponse is an Anishnaabe from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek—Northern Ontario, where she was born and raised. She is a writer, film director, video artist and community activist. Her film work has been viewed internationally including the Sundance Film Festival. Her film Every Emotion Costs screened worldwide, winning various awards. Her art based video work has been installed in various galleries and programs nationally/internationally. She is currently working on a book of short stories. She owns Pine Needle Productions, an award-winning boutique Film/Audio Recording Production Studio, located in Atikameksheng Anishnawbek. Darlene is passionate and pure as an independent artist.